Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display peripheral interface input device – Touch panel
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-06
2002-11-26
Hjerpe, Richard (Department: 2674)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display peripheral interface input device
Touch panel
C178S018010, C345S215000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06486874
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention lies in the field of electronic input devices. The invention relates to a method of pre-caching user interaction elements based on input device position.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have been many recent advances in personal, hand-held computer technology, typically referred to as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), Palm PCs, or Pocket PCs.
Recently, various types of hand held electronic devices for personal data organization have been successfully marketed. One such type of device is a PDA sold under the trademarks PALMPILOT, PALM III, PALM IV, AND PALM V, available from Palm Computing of Mountain View, Calif. a 3COM company. These PDAs include control buttons and a touch-sensitive screen with touch-sensitive screen activation areas displayed thereon. PDAs typically display phone numbers, to-do lists, calendars, digitally stored maps, directions, etc., all of which are accessible through touching the activation areas and/or control buttons.
A separate hand-held pen or stylus is included to activate the touch-sensitive screen activation areas. The touch-sensitive screen activation areas can include data entry portals. To enter data into the PALMPILOT, one either uses an on-screen keyboard or an on-screen GRAFFITI-based writing “pad” that responds to a form of shorthand. Both of these data entry devices require implementation of the stylus. The on-screen keyboard enables the user to input alphanumeric characters, for example. Corresponding software enables the pad to recognize/read the handwritten gestures made while the stylus lies upon and/or travels over the tablet and either interprets the gestures as a command for executing a given function or translates the gestures into a digital representation.
Force-based stylus systems inherently rely upon contact between the stylus and the writing surface. Thus, typical force-based systems are unable to receive stylus data when the stylus is not contacting the writing surface. Additionally, force-based systems inherently do not provide a measurement of stylus speed across the writing surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,347,589 to Meeks et al. discloses a system for displaying handwriting parameters in which the pen speed is used to modulate an envelope around the trace on the display. The system allows a side by side comparison of a stored reference signature and a newly penned signature for verification purposes. In other conventional pen-speed based dynamic signature analysis systems, an analog signal proportional to the tangential pen speed across a surface is generated. The system correlates the signal to a reference signal and reports the degree of correlation. Another system provides automatic verification based on use of a pen having an accelerometer and a pressure sensor, in which the pen acceleration and pressure are used internally as the discriminants. Another system determines the X and Y components of pen speed and uses the magnitude of the differences in the velocity vectors as an internal discriminant.
A first drawback to the touch-sensitive systems is that the stylus-based action is dependent solely upon direct contact between the stylus and the touch-sensitive screen. In other words, when the stylus is not in contact with the touch-sensitive screen, computer activity based upon stylus use or position is not altered, carried out, or executed, and stylus position information is neither conveyed to the touch-sensitive screen nor used by the internal computing device.
The touch-sensitive screen activation areas can also include on-screen controls that are defined by particular defined areas that, when touched, implement predetermined changes or functionality in computer activity. Examples of controls that are defined by areas of the touch-sensitive screen include icons representing software functionality and pull-down menus. These areas can be bit-mapped, for example. Such menus include, for example, word processing functions in a word processor, i.e., “File,” “Edit,” “View,” “Insert,” “Format,” “Tools,” “Table,” “Window,” and “Help.” Presently, enabling a touch-sensitive screen activation area can be performed only by actually touching the screen with the stylus directly above a particular control area.
Accordingly, a second drawback in existing touch-sensitive systems lies in the fact that the computer begins to implement the functionality of the control areas or preliminary actions that are necessary to execute the functionality only when and after the stylus has actually touched the screen directly above a particular control area. Implementation of the functionality or the preliminary actions does not occur before such contact.
Enabling software functionality by loading in or caching a particular software program takes time. For example, a software program, such as a word processor, a calendar, or an address list, takes time to fully load into the computer's memory after the instruction is given to activate that program (i.e., touch for PDAs and double-click for desktop/laptop computers).
Therefore, a third drawback to the existing touch-sensitive systems is evidenced by an implementation delay of the control area functionality, the implementation not taking place until after the stylus actually touches the particular position defining the control area.
While none of the existing touch-sensitive, stylus/tablet, hand-held computer systems employ a stylus and tablet that are independent from direct contact between the stylus and the tablet, various electronic stylus-based systems do exist that can employ this feature. Two systems that presently define the state of the art for technology that is partially independent from the direct contact between a stylus and a tablet include inductive coupling and radio frequency systems.
One inductive coupling pen-sensing system is produced by Synaptics, Inc. That inductive system operates by using a modulated inductive coupling between a fixed and a moving point to enable precise measurement of a relative position between the two points. Specifically, the system measures the relative position of the tip of a pen relative to a pen-based computer. A printed circuit board of the system contains tracks that are used as a fixed sensing coil. A fixed excitation coil is positioned between the printed circuit board and a liquid crystal display (LCD). A passive pen containing a capacitor and a coil is used for “writing” upon the LCD. This system can track and record the movement of the pen upon the LCD. Significantly, the device is able to sense the location of the pen at a distance from the surface of the LCD. For conventional power outputs, the system can track the pen at a distance of up to approximately one-half (0.5) inch from the LCD surface.
An example embodiment of a radio frequency (“RF”) pen-sensing system is produced by the CROSS pen computing group and is referred to as the CROSSPAD device. The pen in this system contains a small RF transmitter that sends pen stroke data to the notepad. Because the transmitter sends radio signals, this system can track and record the movement of the pen at a distance from the surface of the display.
Consumers judge and differentiate electronic products based on response speed, seamless navigation, and Graphical User Interface (GUI) ease-of-use. GUIs with menus, hypertext, and graphical selection features are becoming more common, and the GUI screen density of these features in electronic devices is increasing rapidly to accommodate increasing functionality. This situation is particularly acute for wireless devices that tend to be small in size and that have small, low-resolution displays.
Prior art user-assist technologies (such as “Tool Tips” in WINDOWS and highlighting/roll-over when a cursor passes over a hyperlink) use two-dimensional information (i.e., the X-Y position on a screen). These user-assist technologies can be referred to as anticipation alerts. The systems employing the technology, however, have many limitations.
One of these limitations is inadvertent act
Gillette Joseph G.
Muthuswamy Sivakumar
Dulaney Randi L.
Eisen Alexander
Hjerpe Richard
Motorola Inc.
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